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Stalin

I just stumbled upon at these interesting photos of Soviet Tbilisi ranging from 1950’s to the end of 1980’s. These images feature some buildings and monuments that are not there anymore or have been changed. I will write another post about that later. In the meantime take a look at ‘greener’ Tbilisi.

Mikheil Saakashvili, the president of Georgia and his political team – United National Movement have been very tough on soviet symbols in Georgia. During their parliamentary rule a law was passed that required all soviet symbols to be taken down from public buildings. They also removed monuments of Stalin from Gori (Stalin’s hometown) and other parts of Georgia. After the October 1, 2012 parliamentary election, when Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream came to power elderly citizens of Georgia began to re-erect Stalin’s monument in various parts of Georgia. For example in this video called “Glory to big Stalin” people say what a great person Stalin was and what great things he has done:

This fact has upset the other part of Georgians who decided to fight against resurrection of Stalin monuments by painting them pink. And this is the result:

The over-spoken statue of Stalin that stood on the central square of Gori has been removed just an hour ago. The discussion about the monument became harsh after the war in 2008 between Georgia and Russia, after which Russia occupied 20% of Georgia, including two breakaway regions Abkhazia and so-called South Ossetia. Part of the Georgian society disliked the monument saying that Georgia is occupied by the descendants of Stalin and he’s statue must not stand in the middle of Gori. Others stated that Statue must be replaced by the monument of Georgian heroes who stood against Russian forces to protect Gori and entire Georgia. Some Gori citizens claimed that Stalin’s statue is one of the key monuments of the town that attracts tourists who are interested to see his hometown and his house.

Despite all the talking the statue is down. The process started approximately at 00:10 am local Georgian time on June 25, 2010. The territory was surrounded by Georgian police. According to TV station Trialeti’s Lado Bichashvili, he was not allowed to shoot a video of the initial process. The live camera that looks at the central square and belongs to livegeorgia.ge was covered by unknown tissue

livegeorgia.ge live camera looking at the Gori central square at 01:07 am local Georgian time

The tissue was gone approximately at 1:30 a.m. local Georgian time and one can see that the statue is not there anymore